


Z-Day

by dametokillfor



Category: Avenged Sevenfold
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-03
Updated: 2011-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-20 01:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/207431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dametokillfor/pseuds/dametokillfor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They both know it’s not nothing. They’ve got an hour, two tops before nothing becomes a very big something and that something is going to ruin everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Z-Day

They slam the doors shut behind them, the larger throwing all his weight against them to hold them shut. His partner drops to his knees and starts rummaging through their bag to find the chains to hold the doors shut.

“Brian, you want to hurry?” Matt cries, pushing back further against the door. The creatures are clawing at the windows, their cries sending chills through Matt. He knows they can’t reach him so long as he keeps the doors closed but _those noises_. They’re the single most horrific thing Matt has ever heard.

“No, I figured I’d just sit down here, set up a campfire and tell fuckin’ ghost stories.” Brian snaps back, pulling the chains from the bag, “They’re fuckin’ tangled, you dick, give me a minute.”

“A minute? In case you hadn’t noticed, Haner, we don’t exactly have a minute. There’s a horde of fuckin’ zombies out there trying to get the fuck in.” Matt kicks the other man’s thigh to punctuate his words, “Hurry it up.”

Brian jumps to his feet, untangled chain in hand and threads it through the large handles behind Matt. Matt pulls away from the door and helps him tie the chains up. The pair step back from the door, watching the carnage they’ve left behind them.

The street outside their new safe haven is a fuckin’ mess. There’s flames from where one of their party decided blowing the creatures up would be a wise idea. (They’ve got to admit watching flying, flaming zombies was kind of cool, except for the part where it was in their reality, rather than a movie or a game). Bodies are strewn across the roads in various states of decay, none of them completely intact. Their friends have all fallen in battle, leaving Brian and Matt to fight their way to one of the safe houses.

Brian punches Matt, hard, in the arm. “Fuckin’ kick me.”

Matt smiles, before his face falls and he nods to Brian’s wrapped arm, “Let me see it.”

“Easy tiger, buy me dinner first.” Brian says, the joke more forced than usual.

Matt wishes he didn’t have to do this, wishes he could just sit and goof around with his best friend like he used to but he’s got to face facts.

“Bri…”

He rolls his eyes, pulling his arm to his chest, “It’s nothing. Just a little bite.”

“From a zombie.” Matt points out.

“We don’t know that for sure.” Brian says, moving over to the cash desk and sitting on it, “I mean, that guy could quite easily have just been insane.”

“And decaying?”

“Make up. You’ve seen Zombieland, you think nobody’s trying the Bill Murray defence?” Brian says, “Come on, Matt, even we used a lawnmower as a weapon. People take inspiration from the movies.”

Matt joins his friend on the cash desk, sitting closer than he probably needs to. He can hear the fear in Brian’s voice, wishes more than anything he could do something, anything to take that away from him.

“The lawnmower thing was pretty cool.” Matt agrees, thinking back on it.

“You fuckin’ know it.”

The look of utter glee on Brian’s face when he’d found the damn thing in the store they’d been hiding out in. Matt had known straight away what he’d been thinking. ~~Matt usually did~~. The people they’d been with were less prepared.

Brian smiles, nudges Matt with his shoulder, “Guess we got lucky on one front.”

Matt looks over at him.

“They’re not line dancing.”

They both start laughing then, memories of late nights together with cheap beer and cheaper zombie flicks coming back to them. Falling asleep on top of one another on assorted couches, waking up tangled together awkwardly. Brian sighs, pulls the dressing from his arm and moves it so that Matt can take a closer look.

It still looks fresh, the blood still glistening a deep red around the teeth marks. The skin around the wound is greying. _Dying_ , Matt’s brain helpfully supplies.

“It’s nothing.” Matt lies, pulling the dressing back over it.

“See, that’s what I thought.”

Matt can hear the resignation in Brian’s voice. They both know it’s not nothing. They’ve got an hour, two tops before nothing becomes a very big something and that something is going to ruin everything.

“But hypothetically if it was something…”

“Brian, don’t.” Matt starts, dangerously close to snapping at his friend, “I’ll do it. You know I’ll do it. Just… can we not talk about it?”

Brian holds his hands up, lets the moment pass, “Okay.”

There’s a moment of silence between them before Brian speaks up, “Just can’t believe it’d be that easy for you!”

It’s meant to be a joke, Matt knows it from Brian’s infuriatingly sarcastic tone, but it pushes him over the edge. He drops off the edge of the desk and whirls around to look at his friend.

“Easy? You think this is easy? Knowing that my best fuckin’ friend is about to turn into one of those fuckin’… things and that I’m the only one who can fuckin’ stop it?” Matt snaps, “This isn’t easy, nothing about this is easy, but damnit, Brian, I’m not letting you go out like that.”

“Hey, Matt. I’m fucking around.” Brian says, jumping from the desk and walking over to his friend, “I say stupid shit, you should that by now.”  
He wraps his arm around Matt’s shoulder, “Thanks. I… I appreciate it.”

Matt slaps Brian’s hand, “You’d do the same.”

“Yeah,” Brian agrees, “But I’d at least pretend to be broken up over it first.”

Matt rolls his eyes and pushes Brian off him, “Dick.”

“Hey, it’ll make it easier, right?”

“Yeah, remembering how fuckin’ annoying you are will make shooting you in the head easier.”

Brian smiles across at him. It’s an annoyingly smug smile, Matt knows it should make him want to hit the fucker but it’s not having the desired effect. He looks away before the look makes him grab Brian in a bone crushing hug.

Of course Brian’s not about to give him any peace. That would be far too easy of him.

"So, now we've got over that emo shit.” Brian starts, “Are you going to fuck me or are we going to waste these last few hours fighting that too?”

Matt can't believe Brian's being so up front about it.

Actually, yes he can. That’s just Brian.

Brian smirks at him, still as tempting as ever. Despite the fact the virus is taking hold, Matt still sees the man he’s been fighting an obsession with for years. The dark brown eyes are still full of mischief, despite looking bloodshot now. His smile is still driving Matt insane, those thin lips teasing him and driving him to distraction.

"You son of a bitch."

No sooner have the words left Matt's mouth than his lips are on Brian's, pushing him up against the counter, taking from him everything that he’s wanted for so long but has always been afraid to take.

And Brian’s not fighting it. He’s giving it everything he’s got, clinging to Matt like a dying man. He’d laugh at the irony if he weren’t otherwise occupied.

A loud bang behind them reminds them that they’re not technically alone and they break apart, both looking across at the door.

“You think those chains will hold?” Matt asks, turning back to Brian.

“Probably not.” Brian doesn’t even bother to pretend, “But an impending attack of zombies is probably the most interesting reason someone’s cited to stop from sleeping with me. Of course this time it’s actually true.”

Matt’s about to ask when the fuck someone else used that excuse when there’s another bang against the glass.

“Come on,” Brian says, grabbing Matt’s wrist, “Fuckin’ assholes aren’t getting a free show today.”

He pulls his friend away from the prying eyes of the zombies. They’re still banging against the glass, both men realistically know they’ll get in here sooner rather than later. Neither of them want to accept it though, they just want a few more moments, just a little longer together.

Brian pulls Matt behind him, down a short corridor to a door marked ‘Staff Only’. They burst into the room, their lust momentarily ignored in favour of sealing the door behind them. Boxes and a table are pushed up against the door, Matt checks whether the door can be pulled open, rushes to the small window and peers out.

“They’re still at the front.” He tells Brian, turning to look at his friend.

Brian’s bent over the table, breathing heavy.

“Bri?”

Matt moves over to him, rests a hand on his back, “Dude, are you okay?”

“Stupid question, Sanders.” Brian says, turning to look at Matt.

Matt lifts his hand away from Brian when he sees him. His eyes are glassed over, white over the glossy dark brown.

“Jesus.”

“Would come in handy right now. You think he could heal zombies?” Brian asks, with a half smile.

Matt wants to hate him right now, he wants to punch the goddamn smirk off his face.

“Y’know, Matt, I hate to leave you with blue balls…”

“Liar.” Matt says, his hand reaching for the revolver stashed in his thigh holster.

“The fuck would I lie about that? You’re not the only one suffering. Except mine might literally fall off.”

Matt smiles, rests his other hand back on Brian’s shoulder.

“Guess this is the part where I do the big speech, right? Before I just start moaning and screaming.” Brian says, “Sounds weirdly like what we’d been planning to do, except less naked. I hope.”

“Bri, you don’t…”

“Don’t want to.” Brian says, laughing, “Not cool with the big, epic displays of affection, never have been. I mean, not with someone I actually give a shit about. Winning a chick over with flowers, chocolates, it‘s all for show.”

“Brian…”

“I love you man.” Brian says, “Just… y’know, remember that. And pretend I said something cool. Something that would make Ash proud.”

Matt smiles back at him, “You got it.”

Brian leans up and captures Matt’s mouth in a brief kiss, “Groovy.”

Matt smiles as he brings the piece up to Brian’s forehead. Brian’s got a stupid, lopsided smile on his face.

His eyes are closed as the shot rings out.

\---x

The outbreak is contained a few months later. The official excuse is some bullshit about a virus that Matt doesn’t believe for a second. He was in the thick of everything, fighting alongside the soldiers, he heard the chatter. A Captain America gone wrong, the military’s desperate need for better, faster, stronger more important than their respect for human life.

There aren’t many people left, a few thousand here and there, dotted around the country in military camps. They’re trying to rebuild, trying to create some semblance of a civilization.

Matt’s considered a hero, taking down the amount of zombies he did outside the store he and Brian had been hiding in. (He can almost smile at the fact there was a fuckin’ chainsaw in the back room). He’d been found on his knees with the carcasses of the creatures surrounding him, taken in by one of the military trucks patrolling the area.

The kids on the camps ask him to tell them stories, to tell everyone how he survived. He’s their equivalent of Superman. Their favourite story, though, doesn’t even involve him.

That’s the story of the brave, brown eyed hero.

The one who took down thirty zombies with a lawnmower.

 _Fuckin’ Brian_.

**Author's Note:**

> This idea was originally going to be used in my zombie Halloween fic from two years ago, however that fic remains unfinished. After hearing Not Ready To Die, I wanted to revisit the idea but wasn't really up for finishing that fic off. Instead, I took the idea I was really excited about and this came out. I had originally meant for it to be a bit more heartwrenching but the boys didn't want to co-operate. It was also going to be smutty but my muses refused to co-operate on that front.
> 
> Also ten points to anyone who can spot all the zombie pop culture references.


End file.
